As anybody who has been accosted for being in the wrong place at the wrong time can tell you, profiling is bad, or at the very least can account for undeserved visitation by the authorities. That being said, the readers of this board very much wish for categorization and dissemination of information with regards to flavors found in mangoes. I for one have used these boards to great effect in the selection of varieties of mangoes with a wide range of flavor profiles.
According to information I have found on this site and others, Mangoes largely fall into several flavor categories. Piney/Indian spicy/ resin, Coconutty, Florida/peachy(yellow peach is implied), Citrusy, Indochinese, and others.
For the purpose of this discussion I would like to focus on flavors independently of other similar qualities for instance: Sweetness(Brix), acidity, Mouthfeel (syrupy to Chalky(startchy)), fiberousness, etc. While these qualities are often polarizing amongst connoisseurs, they don’t highlight what distinguishes mangoes from other types of fruit, which is to say a broad range of flavor profiles.
In this thread I wanted to share an opinion I arrived at while weeding the orchard.
Long has the flavor of the Maha Chanok mango been discussed, often being referred to as ‘floral’ or ‘herbal’. Often the flavor is described as being similar to parsnips, which I agree with, but this defies the longstanding categories which we group mango flavors by.
It clicked today as I pulled a fennel root. Fennel has an anisey type of aroma, but the root has a far more complex profile. The weed comes from the family apiaceae of which carrots, parsely, and celery and parsnips also belong. The roots convey an aroma on par with this. Somewhat in between parsnips, carrots, and clove (pumpkin pie spice).
It is due to this character that I believe a quality is shared between Maha Chanok (Parsnip), Mallika (carroty), and Caribbean mangoes such as Madame Francis (anisey/pumpkin pie spice).
I hope that this dialogue will assist those considering which varieties of mangoes to plant on the basis of flavor alone.
In the future I hope to have discussions on other types of flavors which mangoes can have.